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50 free US Congress trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Congress writes the laws, holds the purse and still runs on rules written in 1789. This congressional trivia covers both chambers: how many members sit in each, who breaks a Senate tie, why the House carries a silver-and-ebony mace, and the senator who spoke for more than 24 hours straight. Every answer is sourced, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many voting members does Congress have in total?
535
That is 100 senators plus 435 representatives; the 538 figure is the Electoral College, which adds three votes for DC.
Q 02What law fixed the House of Representatives at 435 seats?
Reapportionment Act of 1929
The House had grown with every census until 1929; since then seats are only shuffled between states.
Q 03How long is a single U.S. Senate term?
Six years
Terms are staggered so that roughly a third of the Senate faces voters every two years.
Q 04What is the minimum age to serve in the U.S. Senate?
30
The House bar is 25; the presidency requires 35. Henry Clay was seated at 29 anyway in 1806.
Q 05How many years must someone have been a U.S. citizen to serve in the House?
Seven
The Senate asks for nine years of citizenship; fourteen years of residency is the presidential rule.
Q 06Which part of the Constitution creates Congress?
Article One
The framers listed the legislature first because they expected it to be the most powerful branch.
Q 07In what year did the first Congress under the Constitution meet?
1789
It replaced the Congress of the Confederation, the weak single-chamber body that preceded it.
Q 08Which 1787 deal gave every state two senators and population-based House seats?
Connecticut Compromise
Small states got equality in the Senate and large states got weight in the House, which is why the two chambers differ.
Q 09Which chamber must originate revenue-raising bills?
The House
The idea, borrowed from Britain, was that taxes should start in the chamber closest to the voters.
Q 10What share of the Senate is needed to remove an impeached official?
Two-thirds
No president has ever been convicted; Andrew Johnson survived by a single vote in 1868.
Q 11Who became the first female President of the Senate in 2021?
Kamala Harris
The role comes with the vice presidency; she went on to cast a record 33 tie-breaking votes.
Q 12When is the vice president allowed to vote in the Senate?
Only to break a tie
The vice president is not a senator, so the tie-breaker is the only vote they ever cast in the chamber.
Q 13Who presides over the Senate when the VP is away?
President pro tempore
The job traditionally goes to the majority party's most senior member, who usually hands the chair to a junior colleague.
Q 21Which ex-president returned to Congress as a House member until his death in 1848?
John Quincy Adams
He is the only former president to do so, and he led the fight to repeal the House gag rule on anti-slavery petitions.
Q 22Which state had the largest House delegation after the 2020 census?
California
California sends 52 representatives, though it lost a seat for the first time in that count.
Q 23How many states have just one representative in the House?
Six
Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming each elect a single at-large member.
Q 14What fraction of the Senate is normally needed to invoke cloture?
Three-fifths
That is the famous 60-vote threshold; changing the rules themselves takes two-thirds.
Q 15Who gave the longest single filibuster speech in Senate history?
Strom Thurmond
He spoke for more than 24 hours in 1957 against a civil rights bill, which passed anyway.
Q 16How were U.S. senators chosen before 1913?
By state legislatures
The Seventeenth Amendment switched the job to statewide popular elections.
Q 17The word "senate" comes from a Latin word meaning what?
Old man
The chamber was deliberately modeled on the Roman Senate, a council of elders.
Q 18How many desks stand in the Senate chamber?
100
Senators pick a desk by seniority within their party; 48 of them date to 1819.
Q 19Why do 48 Senate desks date only to 1819?
The British burned the Capitol
The chamber was rebuilt after the 1814 Burning of Washington destroyed its original contents.
Q 20Senate terms are staggered into how many classes?
Three
The First Congress drew lots so one third of seats expired after two, four and six years.
Q 24Which U.S. territory sends a resident commissioner to the House?
Puerto Rico
Unlike the other non-voting delegates, the resident commissioner serves a four-year term.
Q 25Who was the first Speaker of the House?
Frederick Muhlenberg
The Pennsylvania Lutheran minister also began the tradition of opening sessions with the ceremonial mace.
Q 26Where did the House first convene?
New York City
Federal Hall on Wall Street hosted the First Congress before the capital moved to Philadelphia and then Washington.
Q 27In the 1800 contingent election, the House chose Jefferson over which rival?
Aaron Burr
The tie between running mates prompted the Twelfth Amendment, which separated presidential and vice-presidential ballots.
Q 28Which House panel includes every single representative?
Committee of the Whole
It consists of every member of the House and is used to consider bills under relaxed debate rules.
Q 29Who holds the record for most cumulative time as Speaker?
Sam Rayburn
The Texan served three separate stints between 1940 and 1961; a House office building bears his name.
Q 30Who was the first woman elected Speaker of the House?
Nancy Pelosi
She took the gavel in 2007 and again in 2019, the first Speaker to regain the post since Rayburn.